Document DE 199 29 022 C2 is known from the prior art, which is also directed toward a door handle module, especially a door outer handle, in which a crash lock is also used, which prevents movement of the door handle and/or coupling unit in shape-mated fashion. It is also known from the prior art to provide door handle modules with an inertial mass or a so-called inertial lock, in order to be able to compensate the acceleration forces that act on the door handle during an accident. The crash lock then serves as a fast-acting safety that locks the door handle in shape-mated fashion in its rest position and the inertial lock serves as a slow-acting safety that counteracts the acceleration forces on the door handle.
However, current accident research results have shown that it is precisely during a side impact that alternating acceleration forces can occur, which initiate so-called “fluttering” of the fast-acting crash lock. A maximum acceleration up to 500 g can then act for a brief time on the door handle module, in which the acceleration can reverse its direction of acceleration. The problem therefore arises during actual accidents that the fast-acting crash lock is activated by the acceleration forces acting during an accident and secures the door handle in the rest position, but, during subsequent fluttering of the crash lock, a situation can occur in which the door handle is moved from the rest position by the acting acceleration forces, since the fast-acting crash lock has left its activation position during the fluttering process. Unfortunately, undesired release of the door lock can therefore occur, so that an acute and threatening hazard to the driver is present.